1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a color image processing system and method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, page printers such as laser beam printers start printing after storing all print data for one page in a memory. If the memory does not have a sufficient capacity to store all print data for one page, such printers cannot start printing.
In another printing technique, bitmap image data is generated from print data, not in units of pages but in units of predetermined regions (bands) in order to reduce the memory capacity required. This technique is known as “banding” and is well known in the art.
In page printers of the related art, the duration from print start to print end is defined by a printer engine characteristic and once started, printing cannot be stopped until all pages are finished. Thus, if all image data for one page is not loaded at the end of printing (e.g., due to small memory size of work area, low transfer rate of generated image data, etc.), a print error occurs.
In order to overcome this problem, in the related art, the data size is detected in advance and, if the detected size is greater than a predetermined value, the image quality is lowered to reduce the data size, i.e., the so-called degrading operation is performed, thus allowing continuous printing to occur. Such a degrading operation is disclosed in Japanese laid-open patent H07-195753.
However, the degrading operation reduces the number of bits and the resolution of the image data, e.g., reducing the resolution from 600 dpi to 300 dpi. In such a case, unsatisfactory results are produced since the final image quality is degraded. The degrading operation in the Japanese laid-open patent H07-195753 mainly focuses on continuous printing, and there is no description of minimizing the lowering of image quality in that patent.